Hello! Hoping you guys can help me. I'm doing some research around type-in games that appeared as listings in magazines (and books).
I'm looking for some recommendations for the best examples on the CPC. Either small listings that produced surprisingly fun little games, or mammoth listings that produced games that were (almost) commercial quality.
I see that quite a number have been typed in and uploaded, so any pointers on the best ones to look at would be most appreciated.
I dont have any specific examples to hand, but there were quite a few really good 10 liners which packed addictive games into 10 lines of BASIC or machine code. Also, David Hall made some good type-ins so be sure to check out anything with his name on.
Quote from: MartynC on 11:14, 27 November 12
I see that quite a number have been typed in and uploaded, so any pointers on the best ones to look at would be most appreciated.
My TOP 3
#1 Pak Caverns (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=5646)
#2 Space Mania (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=3463)
#3 Splatch (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=3470)
But there are loads of others that are pretty good, too!
Crazy Legs (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=4396)
Duck Dodgers (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=7273)
Interceptor (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=5644)
Rock Hopper (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1820)
Roland In The Haunted House (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=2563)
Roland Takes A Running Jump (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=3407)
Diamond Digger (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=3027)
House Of Spiders (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=3193)
Welcome mate!
Just one question - why are you "researching" this subject? Out of curiosity or are you doing some project? None of my business, probably, just asking :)
Quote from: MartynC on 11:14, 27 November 12
Hello! Hoping you guys can help me. I'm doing some research around type-in games that appeared as listings in magazines (and books).
I'm looking for some recommendations for the best examples on the CPC. Either small listings that produced surprisingly fun little games, or mammoth listings that produced games that were (almost) commercial quality.
Are you specifically interested in type-ins published by British magazines, or would you like examples of French and German type-ins as well? French magazines in particular published lots of large type-ins, and several of them actually published special editions (known as "hors-série") consisting almost entirely of type-ins.
There are plenty of French type-ins that I would certainly consider to be commercial quality, particularly those that were published in the early 1990s. One extreme example is
Axys: The Last Battle (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Axys:_The_Last_Battle), which was published over five issues in one magazine. If you are going to write an article about type-ins, I would definitely mention this one! ;D
Quote from: MartynC on 11:14, 27 November 12
I'm looking for some recommendations for the best examples on the CPC. Either small listings that produced surprisingly fun little games, or mammoth listings that produced games that were (almost) commercial quality.
1. CPC Schneider/Amstrad international: This magazine had commercial-quality like games and applications. And they had the very best checksum generator ever!
2. Happy Computer: Great quality games and programs. Good checksum generator
3. Schneider Magazin: Nice tools, great applications. F.e. G-Paint (a type in) has the potential to knock out OCP art studio.
4-5... are of lesser interrest ;-)
I consider ALINKA to be one of the best tetris clones.
A type-in as well, published in ACPC mag...
http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=2349 (http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=2349)
If a type-in usually has some M/C Data Statements in it, then it's usually the case that the author is giving the person typing it all in a treat to play around with once it's been typed in, and if you're lucky if there are any errors in certain lines of the data, the program will tell you this so you can correct the problem before it crashes.
Sean McManus has his BASIC Idea website which is made up of a lot of programs Sean sent to magazines back in the day. Sean's programs maybe good to look at cause it's a mixture of M/C and BASIC and he kind of uses the M/C for where it's needed (where basic would fail) and just use BASIC in areas where it will work.
The only downside to programs with M/C in it is understand the code, you can Disassemble it and all that, though having the Assembly source code is always an advantage. :( At least that's how it is for myself which only dabbles in the language.
Type ins here had a checksum after the end of every line.
When using a checksum generator - which was common practice - when pressing returen a checksum was given on screen and you just compare to the journal checksum. Easy, easy, easy.... and CPCAI did best in that.
Showdown in Tombstone City!!!
xesrjb
Ahhhhh I remember Roland takes a running jump! Spent ages typing that in with my Dad and it never worked properly.
The best poke type in was for Jet Set Willy which let you teleport to different rooms which was really good
There was some pretty short type-ins in ACU magazine i recall. Like the 10-line-series games/programs they had. They even had a 1-line basic game at one point that impressed me quite a lot. Pretty big that one line :D
Quote from: khisanth on 16:05, 02 December 12
The best poke type in was for Jet Set Willy which let you teleport to different rooms which was really good
I did a version of that POKE here; What are the Best Games to Show off the CPC46 ? (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/games/what-are-the-best-games-to-show-off-the-cpc46/msg31914/#msg31914)
I still need to find why the CARTOGRAPHY ROOM doesn't update properly, but I seem to remember having the same problem back in the day and I can't remember how I fixed it back then!
Quote from: khisanth on 16:05, 02 December 12
Ahhhhh I remember Roland takes a running jump! Spent ages typing that in with my Dad and it never worked properly.
The best poke type in was for Jet Set Willy which let you teleport to different rooms which was really good
IIRC there was a correction in a follow-up magazine for RTARJ. I did get it running, and it was quite fun, but even more fun to design your own levels with the level designer.
Anybody remembers Stone Runner?
Well, Martyn posed a question and then disappeared :D I hope we hear more from him!
I'm sorry, been meaning to pop back and thank you for the recommendations. Axys is a pretty incredible example of a type-in. Loved Diamond Digger too.
Both games will be mentioned in an upcoming Retro Gamer article, about type-in games and how we used to spend crazy amounts of time tapping them in. I've got some quotes from mag people too, like Bob Wade, about the productions problems they caused for the in-house staff.
Thanks again!
Ohh RG. Should've said so earlier ;)